Affective Meaning describes signs used to add or change what aspect?

• A. Affective Meaning
• B. Referential Meaning
• C. Social Meaning
• D. Pragmatic Meaning

Answer: (C)

Affective meaning is about the signer’s attitude or emotion toward the topic and toward the audience. When signs are paired with facial expressions, head tilts, and body posture, they add affective meaning that colors how the message is perceived socially. Those emotional cues shape social meaning—the information about the signer’s stance, relationship, formality, or politeness—more than they change the actual content being signed or the basic function of the message.

So, signs that convey joy, frustration, sarcasm, or warmth alter the social tone of the communication, not the referent or the communicative purpose. The referential content remains the topic, and the pragmatic function remains the intent, while affective cues modify how the social relationship and stance are understood.